January 1, 2007
Beatitude
from Today at the Mission, a blog about a Canadian homeless shelter:
While the paramedics were doing their thing [a man had just had an epileptic siezure], I went out in the middle of the dining room and led the room in a prayer for the young man. As I was returning to the serving line another man, in his early thirties, stopped me. This is a guy who has, at one time or another, given every one of our staff at the men’s shelter a serious hassle – including threats of violence. He’s an ex-con. He’s manipulative and can be Prince Charming when he wants something. He has addictions that he drifts in and out of, making the staff’s life as miserable as his own while in their grip. Yet, what does this guy do? He gently asks if I remembered what I said about not understanding how God comforts us when we’re mourning. He then tilted his head towards the young man being treated by the paramedics, the one who, a few minutes earlier, I had been holding in my arms. “God’s given you a picture,” he said, “can you see it?”
I was stunned. Absolutely stunned. A short time later I was explaining this to one of the staff whose other gig is as an Anglican (Episcopalian) minister. He laughed and said, yeah, well, if you want God to send a prophet that’s pretty much the last guy you want him to send.
comments
It’s funny (or maybe not), but I tend to be suspicious of the ‘likely’ prophets, not the ‘unlikely’ ones.
Well, yes: as the Anglican priest says, “Exactly.”